Franklin Miller Awards

I am delighted to nominate Jess Besca for this award. Jess has a high GPA ... and is a senior psych major, philosophy minor. After having taken my "Psychology and the Law" course, she reached out to me expressing interest in joining my lab as a research assistant. I encouraged her to apply and she has subsequently joined my lab and has been working as my research assistant since then. I have valued Jess' involvement as a research assistant in my lab. ... [S]he has diligently coded videotaped mock jury deliberations for mock juror emotional expression, and I am so very pleased that, in part due to her help, we are much closer toward completing this phase of the project. I subsequently involved Jess in preliminary data analysis of this project, and her efforts in coding and involvement in data analysis have led to her lead co-authorship on a conference poster presentation at a recent professional psychological conference (the American Psychology and Law Society). It was a pleasure to watch Jess disseminate this research at this conference and network with professionals in the field. Her knowledge and socio-emotional maturity was truly impressive — so much so that she even got a job offer on the spot for a trial consulting position!

Importantly, Jess is very passionate about incorporating psychological research into psychology advocacy. This can be seen through her advocacy work related to sexual assault here at campus and her psychology senior thesis work related to domestic and sexual violence. In my lab, she was inspired to translate the research she was conducting and learning about into direct advocacy. Specifically, she spearheaded an op ed that she and I (and one other student) recently published in the Knox Pages on child sexual abuse prevention education ... Jess and I worked together to also publish a separate column in the American Psychological Association Div. 37 Section on Child Maltreatment newsletter related to maladaptive policy in Florida recently rolled out by Gov. DeSantis bringing back the death penalty for non-fatal child rape (the United States Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional in 2008).

I am impressed by Jess's research here at Kenyon and even more impressed by how she has worked to translate psychological research into meaningful real-world change through her advocacy efforts.

—Nominated by Associate Professor of Psychology Margaret Stevenson

In her four years at Kenyon, Olivia has been a model for the liberal arts student. A double major in biology and art history, Olivia has dived deep into academics across the college. She has conducted research in biology since her freshman year, with one paper from this research already published with Professor Iris Levin, another paper in review and about to be published with Professor Natalie Wright, and a third paper expected based on her excellent biology Senior Honors Thesis. She presented her honors thesis research at an international conference (Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology), where she impressed my colleagues with her knowledge and insight. ...

Olivia has become a strong leader in the Biology Department, mentoring younger students in my research group and in her biology classes. She was an excellent teaching assistant for "Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy Lab" last fall, enthusiastically sharing her love of anatomy with her peers. She did an amazing job teaching other students how to learn to identify anatomical structures and how to study for anatomy lab.

Olivia has excelled not only in the natural sciences, but also in the fine arts, earning distinction on her art history Senior Exercise. A paper for one of her art history classes on a Soviet monument in her hometown of Seattle so impressed her professor that she was encouraged to submit the paper to a conference on Slavic studies. It was accepted, and she will present her work at a Slavic studies conference later this spring. ...

Olivia combines her love of birds and biology with her love of art. In her art history classes, she regularly contributes insights into scientific illustration as art, and reminds her classmates that, contrary to much popular opinion, science and art go hand in hand, and that scientists appreciate the aesthetic beauty in their work. She borrows bird books from my collection to bring to her art history classes as examples of scientific art (or artistic science?). On research trips to natural history collections with my labgroup, Olivia guides our group through art museums on our downtime, teaching us all about the art we're looking at and explaining why it's amazing. Her enthusiasm is infectious. In short, Olivia has made substantial intellectual contributions across the college, breaking down barriers between divisions.

—Nominated by Assistant Professor of Biology Natalie Wright